Here's the next chapter. You know, Browneyedalbino…I never thought of that idea. I actually might use that. It's not guaranteed, but sometimes certain changes are good. Also, Psionicnemesis, it is related to the scene with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul. Then again…this is Naboo, in Theed, in the same hangar, and in the same rooms and such. Certain things are still different. Still, it serves as an important thing in this story (and others).

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Fox, Yugioh, or Star Wars.

Dark Side Rising

Chapter 9

Gifts from the Prodigy of Hope

Falco stood there, waiting for some of the others to get up and get moving. Joey and Tristan were standing there, worried about Serenity as they don't know if she finally gave up or not.

"Falco, can't we do something?" Joey asked.

"We can't do anything about it," Falco said. "I have orders to take you all out of the city."

"She's putting her life on the line to protect us," Tristan said. "Can't we do the same and save her?"

"Hiroto, it's not that simple," Krystal interrupted. "The Jedi have been the protectors of the common good, the people's savior, and the keepers of the peace. We're to be prepared to give our lives up for that if that's what it takes."

Yami stood there, sensing Serenity's life waning away. He knows what the loss of a life feels like through his powers, but feeling it through the Force for him is different.

"Falco, what do you think we should do?" Yami asked.

"I was given orders and I'll follow those orders," Falco explained. He still stood there with his hands gathered at the small of his back as he exhaled a long sigh. "But if circumstances are to a certain point, then I have no choice but to disobey orders."

"Then why isn't Serenity's life a reason?" Tristan barked.

"Because she's willing to give her life up to save others. She didn't have to if she didn't want to, but she chose her path as a Jedi," Krystal explained.

"My sister is too important to me! I can't lose her now!"

"Joey, you have to remember that Fox lost his sister," Falco said. "Don't think that you're the only one who cares."

Joey stood there, worried about his sister. Falco felt something through the Force, but he doesn't understand what it is. He kept this to himself as Joey and Tristan were still being stubborn as usual. What he felt is a sudden spike in Serenity's life force.

"It's as if she finally died, yet I can still sense her."

Fox kept hanging for dear life from the small beacon like object as Wolf began to shower sparks down. Fox could feel Serenity's life wane away to a minimum, and there's no way of helping her now. Wolf stood there, hoping that Fox would let go anytime soon.

"Fox, you can't win. Even if you're able to get out of there, there's nothing you can use to defend yourself with," Wolf said.

He couldn't bear to hear Wolf talk like that, especially how much pain he's already gone through. Fox kept hanging onto the object as his hands began to fill with pain. Fox tried to sense Serenity's life force again, and he could still feel that she's hanging onto a strand of what's left in her life.

Joey stood there alone as everyone else was waiting on him. He wanted to run back to where Serenity is and save her, but Falco would easily chase him down. Tears were rolling down his eyes as he couldn't bear the pain of losing his sister. Krystal went up to Joey, wanting to tell him something.

"Jou, I…probably can connect you to your sister so that you can talk to her one last time," Krystal said.

Joey looked up, wondering what Krystal was talking about. He couldn't understand what Krystal was getting at. But if there's no possible way for Serenity to return, then he'd rather talk to her one last time.

"I'll…I'll do it."

Tristan walked up to Krystal and wondered about something. "Can we give a last word as well?"

"No, I only have the strength to use one person. Even with Falco's strength and mine combined, we wouldn't be able to support more than one person, let alone that Falco doesn't even know the process," Krystal explained.

"So, why is it that Joey should get the last word to Serenity?" Duke asked.

"Why else you idiot?" Falco said. "Their bonds are stronger than any of yours combined. You and Tristan combined may have a strong bond, but it's not as strong as a sibling's bond."

"So what you're saying is that those with powerful bonds can communicate to someone through any Jedi?" Yami asked.

"Not exactly," Krystal answered. "My people use a special power known as the Nawanse, which uses the Force and connects someone to another person. The Nawanse can only be used through the Cerinian Jedi Knights. However, there's a certain limit at how long a person using the Nawanse can last. Let's say that I use it to connect someone. If two people have a powerful bond, then I could last for hours, but if the bond is weak, then it'd only last for as short as five seconds."

"And you're saying that Joey and Serenity has the most powerful bond out of all of us?" Bakura asked.

"Yes, but I can only do this once since it depletes a lot of my Force energy. No matter how powerful the bond, this can only be used once."

Joey stood there as Krystal placed a hand on his shoulder. She began to gather her Force energy and began to connect Joey to Serenity. Joey stood there, waiting as his vision began to darken and a person lying face down on the ground is replaced by everything else. He knelt down to his sister's body as she was motionless.

"Serenity…I…I'm sorry that I couldn't help you. I don't want you to die, but I guess it's too late to stop that."

Joey's head dropped down as tears began to flow from his eyes. He couldn't hold back the pain of his sister dying, but he couldn't hold back the pain of a secret about his feelings on her being a Jedi.

"Sis…the truth is that I really didn't want you to be a Jedi in the first place. After realizing that it also meant that you had to be ready to even give your life up, I wanted to make you stop. What held me back from that is…well…that you've grown up. You've become more mature now and I can't do a thing to stop you. Sometimes, I think I see a bit of Lisa in you. No matter how hard I would try, I wouldn't be able to convince you to stop your training. I…I just wish that…that you'll live."

As he sat there on one knee, he began to feel something. It's as if someone was actually pushing him out, but he saw someone kneeling by Serenity with a hand on her back. She had a content look in her eye as she looked over to Joey as Serenity's body began to glow with a blue aura, just like the other ghostly figure.

"Don't worry. Your sister will live."

Just as Joey lost sight of them, he realized who it was. He was able to see the city around him and looked behind him to see both Falco and Krystal in a deep trail of thought.

Fox kept hanging onto the object as he felt Serenity's life force disappear. Wolf didn't need to look over to Serenity just to know her condition as he could tell by Fox's expression.

"Fox, your friend died and you can't do anything about it. Even if you do kill me, you'll have to live with the regret of taking her."

"He's right. I can't do anything at this point. There's no point in my life."

Just as Fox was ready to let go, he felt a powerful ripple through the Force. He could feel someone's entity again, and knew who it was. He looked up to see that Wolf didn't notice the ripple, but that didn't matter. He then felt another entity that just disappeared, but long enough that Fox could tell who it was. He then began to smile, happy to know who that was.

"Lauren, thank you."

Fox began to feel a great amount of energy building inside of him as he felt renewed again. Wolf looked at Fox with an odd look as he could feel the shift in Fox's Force energy. Wolf couldn't feel the evil energy from Fox as he could only feel the energy of a Jedi. With little warning, Fox managed to use as much Force energy needed and proceeded to jump out of the pit. As he did, Wolf brought his lightsaber up again as he was ready to strike Fox down. However, he heard the noise of a lightsaber activating from behind. He looked back, losing his attention on Fox, and could see Serenity standing there with her lightsaber high and back. What's surprising is that Serenity's Force energy was overwhelming unlike initially before the fight.

"H…HOW'S THAT POSSIBLE?"

Serenity went in for a powerful swing, but Wolf anticipated and blocked the attack. Wolf tried to decapitate Serenity, but she managed to duck underneath the attack as Fox came up from behind. Fox turned to the left a bit and began to curl his right leg. As he did, Wolf noticed Fox was behind him and spun around only to get a mouthful of Fox's right foot. Wolf fell backwards after taking a hit from the jaw breaker and looked back to look at Serenity as he could feel a great amount of energy building inside of her.

Her arms were crossed in front of her face in an X like formation as her legs were curled up as well. Wolf got up and felt a great amount of energy from Serenity. Wolf then called upon the Dark Side to push Serenity over. However, Fox managed to get in front of Serenity and take the hit for her. He barely moved, but did fall over after taking the blast. Fox then began to feel the energy exhuming off of Serenity as he could vaguely remember that kind of energy build up. Before long, Serenity released her energy as she brought her arms out and let her legs down. The appearance would seem like she was being blasted from behind, but she only remained there as she was yelling out in a battle cry. Wolf got up, trying to run from Serenity, but it was too late as the energy began to spread in a dome like blast. It's as if light itself began to overtake everything.

The energy subsided as Serenity fell to her knees and began to fall over to her side. Fox managed to catch her as her head began to lean against his shoulder while he held her in his arms. Wolf got up, battered from the powerful attack.

"Fox, you may have won the battle, but the war isn't over yet! Mark my words; I'll make sure that I kill you in cold blood!"

Wolf pressed something on his belt as his body began to fade. Fox sat there, holding Serenity as he was questioning himself as to whether what he saw is true or not.

"I know that she used Divine Light. Lauren was the only other person to use that technique; I guess it was passed on to Serenity."

He began to stand up as he held Serenity in his arms. Memories began to flood into his mind as he could remember the time that Serenity saved his life. He now owed her his life twice over. Fox began to run to the others as Serenity's life force began to drop again. This time, it wasn't dropping as severely.

"Serenity, I'll be sure that you live on."

Falco and the others were trapped between their way out and a group of enemies that ambushed them. Joey, Tristan, and Duke were firing away from behind around a corner at the group of Stormtroopers and Battle Droids while Falco and Krystal were holding back two Shadowtroopers. Yami brought his hand up and called upon his powers and used Mind Crush on the Stormtroopers. At the same time, Falco and Krystal managed to dispatch the two Shadowtroopers as more Stormtroopers and Battle Droids came up from behind again. The numbers were so great that even Falco, Krystal, Yami, and Bakura combined would be overwhelmed.

"Hold it right there!" one of the Stormtroopers barked.

Everyone stood there, holding their ground as the enemies had their blasters pointing at them. With no warning at all, something rolled to the middle of the enemies, which they just noticed it. The enemies tried to run, but the Thermal Detonator already blew up as a number of Battle Droids and Stormtroopers flew from the blast. The rest of them either escaped or were killed by some of the shrapnel. Fox emerged from the smoke that came from the blast as he held Serenity in his arms. Joey ran up to Fox, hoping that she's all right.

"Don't worry, Joey. She'll live," Fox said.

Joey grabbed Serenity out of his arms and held her in a tight embrace as he was relieved to see Serenity alive. Serenity began to regain very little of her conscience, feeling the tight embrace around her.

"…J…Joey…"

Fox used the Force to grab his lightsabers back from Bakura. He put one away on his belt and had the other one in his hands as he activated the trigger. Fox felt better as the green blade shimmered from the hilt. The energy from the blade resonated, leaving the remaining Stormtroopers paralyzed while the Battle Droids began to open fire. Fox deflected shot after shot as he stood in front of Joey, trying to protect him as he was still distracted. Tristan began to help out as he fired his M-16 Assault Rifle at the enemies, picking off any remaining troops that Fox didn't get. Falco went up to Fox and began to speak with him.

"Fox, you're okay, right?"

"Better than ever," Fox said.

Fox began to feel another presence as a group of Droidekas appeared from nowhere as their shield generators were up. Fox and Falco were blocking the shots as best as they can until the shields fall. Tristan and Duke began to fire their guns at the enemies, but their shots were doing no good as the Droidekas' shields were still active. Fox began to get annoyed by this and was hoping that a miracle would happen. As he hoped, one did come. He saw a number of shots coming from the air as they were showering the Droidekas. The Droidekas lie in a pile of spare parts as a gigantic ship landed near the entrance. Over the loudspeakers was a familiar voice.

"Everyone, get on the ship!"

With that, Mokuba came out from the hangar and threw down a rope ladder. Fox sensed something from behind and whipped around to see five Reborn standing there, all with red hoods. Falco was about to help, but Fox waved both him and Krystal to go with the others. The Reborn began to surround Fox in a large circle as he could feel energy building inside. He then felt a burst of energy exhuming off of him as he dashed over to the Reborn in front of him. What surprised everyone, even himself, was that he moved in such an instant that no one could see it. He then turned to a random direction and began to attack every Reborn with the same process in a random order as he kept going in straight paths to his next target. After a few seconds of that, he stopped outside the circle as the five Reborn troops fell over. Krystal stood there in awe as she recognized the technique.

"I've heard stories about that Force power, but I never would guess that I'd witness Zero-Shift."

Fox ran to the front hangar as the Great Fox was taking off. He used his Force energy and jumped into it as the opening was already 20 feet off the ground. He landed firmly as he ran over to where Joey was with Serenity.

"How is she?" Fox asked.

Joey looked up with tear filled eyes and a smile on his face. "She'll be fine. She just needs rest."

Fox looked over Joey's shoulder as Serenity was lying in Joey's arms with an emergency oxygen mask. Fox sighed in relief as he could rest easy to know that Serenity will live. He left for his room as he thought about this newfound power.

"Lauren, you gave me this power, didn't you? I've only seen it performed by Luke Skywalker and Durass Kassyl, but you decided to give me Zero-Shift. You truly do live up to your name, Prodigy of Hope. And…thank you for everything, sis."

For those that are wondering, well here are your answers. Nawanse...I don't know what it means, but I felt like using that word since I can't find any other word to use (I really need to get a Japanese translation book). Also, yes, Zero-Shift is from Zone of the Enders. I couldn't think of another name for the technique, so the name belongs to the creators of ZOE. Durass Kassyl, I just made that name up out of my head. One last note, the next chapter will be the last of Dark Side Rising. Please review.